THE COST OF HIGH LIVING 
T is a fortunate thing that an official census is taken but once 
in a decade. As it is, the statistics that flow in a steady be¬ 
wildering stream from Washington would easily supply editorial 
subject matter for twice that period of time. With the assurance 
that we purpose no such utilization of the wealth of figures served 
up in such varied form by the Government, let us look for a 
moment at the relative prices of commodities: 
1900. 1910. 
Farm products . 109.5 164.6 
Food, etc. 104.2 128.7 
Cloths and clothing . 106.8 123.7 
Fuel and lighting . 120.9 125.4 
Metals and implements . 120.5 128.5 
Lumber and building materials . 115.7 153-2 
Drugs and chemicals .:. 115.7 117.0 
House furnishing goods .. 106.1 in.6 
Miscellaneous . 109.8 133.1 
Standing forth in bold relief in the list is the increase in the 
price of farm products. Supplementary figures show that the 
increase in the prices of the finished products — flour, cotton cloths 
and the like—is not so large. It would seem, therefore, that the 
farmer is coming into his own — in fact, that he already has it in 
his pocket. 
MAKE THE LAND PRODUCE 
T HERE is an obvious moral in the paragraph above : Grozv 
your own vegetables. In the suburbs and in the more dis¬ 
tant countryside the development along the lines of small building 
plots is constantly encroaching on the productive land of the 
market gardener and farmer. The soil that yielded potatoes a 
decade back is now supporting lawn. Eight of the typical 50 x 
100 ft. suburban lots are approximately equivalent to an acre. 
Taking two-thirds of each plot for the house, lawn, paths, etc., 
there is left a third for the vegetable patch. One-third of an 
acre, under intensive cultivation, can be made to produce all the 
vegetables, potatoes excepted, that twelve people can eat in a 
year. I11 other words, then, every eight surburban plots that are 
not made to produce, sacrifice the vegetable food of twelve people. 
This is an economic waste of such proportions that, if observed 
in a man's business, it would be a matter for constant study until 
rectified. Because it occurs in connection with our home life it 
passes unnoticed. 
However, it is not strictly our mission to attempt a reduction 
of the present high cost of living. We might even view with 
equanimity this economic waste in the thought that another form 
of return was being paid on the land investment — the invigora- 
tion that comes from life away from the city — a dividend of 
health. What really does bother us in this matter is that the 
dwellers on those much-discussed eight suburban plots are missing 
something in this life that is really too worth while to be missed. 
They are not getting their money’s worth out of the land — not in 
tomatoes or beans, but in the actual rejuvenescence of mind and 
body that comes only to him who digs in the soil. And the by¬ 
product consists of vegetables such as cannot be bought from the 
grocer or the dusty, jouncing cart of the huckster—vegetables in 
the varieties that are too tender and short-lived for marketing, 
vegetables that have a flavor above all others because you have 
raised them yourself. 
MAKING EVERY PROSPECT PLEASE 
HE first of September last, in the State of New York, was 
made a day of joyful work by the Good Roads Committee 
of the Automobile Association of America. On that date a new 
law went into effect in this State, prohibiting the destruction or de¬ 
facement of milestones, guide posts and public property of like 
character, and prohibiting also, without the owner’s written con¬ 
sent, the defacement of trees and buildings with advertisements. 
Fifty or more automobile clubs took part in the wholesale destruc¬ 
tion of such disfiguring signs as had not been removed before the 
law went into effect. 
The campaign against this particular form of defacing the 
countryside has been waged for some years by individuals 
and organizations who preferred Nature unadorned. It has re¬ 
mained, however, for the rapidly swelling ranks of the automo- 
bilists to push to a successful conclusion this one engagement on 
the long firing line. We trust that the noise of battle may be 
heard afar off, inspiring other States to join the crusade. The ul¬ 
timate result is not for a moment in doubt—the billboard as we 
now know T it will be consigned among other relics of barbarism 
within a generation. If we could but make clear to some of our 
erring brothers the fact that an advertisement defacing a beauti¬ 
ful landscape is the worst possible boomerang against the adver¬ 
tiser and his product, we could hasten the coming of that day. 
AN OCTOBER OPPORTUNITY 
CTOBER is a month of renovation inside the house. More 
and more general becomes the custom of freshening up the 
interior decorations and furnishings for the winter months. New 
wall papers and hangings, new rugs and new furniture for a room 
or two, give a new opportunity for rectifying old mistakes in color 
or arrangement, or of laying the foundation for some new scheme 
of both. To but few of us comes the opportunity of furnishing 
and decorating a whole house at one time. Even when we build 
anew there are the inevitable handicaps or restrictions imposed by 
furniture that is too good to give up, rugs that still have many 
years of service before them, hangings that show no signs of 
wear, pictures that have been given us in misguided generosity. 
All have their claims upon us, so that the new house is often dis¬ 
appointing in its perpetuation of past errors. For most of us 
the problem can be slowly but surely solved by consistent efforts 
to do a little at a time along carefully planned lines towards an 
ideal. It is no great hardship to any of us to bring one room up 
to the standard each fall. Even if the more important rooms 
have to be completed through inter-family holiday gifts, or the 
rug problem has to go for another six months, a big stride toward 
the ideal can be made now. The important thing, of course, is 
to keep at it. The temptation is strong to lie back on our oars and 
let things go for another year, but the accomplishment of part of 
the task is worth some personal sacrifice right now. 
TOKONOMA AND CHIGAI-DANA 
HILE we are at the task of making the interiors of our 
homes conform more closely to the ideal, let us profit by 
the custom of the Japanese in regard to the display of pictures 
and ornaments. One end of each of the chief rooms is formed of 
two alcoves, the tokonoma and the chigai-dana. In the former 
is placed the picture of the day, always a subject appropriate to 
the season or the activities of the host. In the chigai-dana is dis¬ 
played the day’s selection of artistic treasures from the fireproof 
kura or “go down.” Only the mere faddist among ourselves would 
attempt to follow this doctrine of simplicity to the letter. For 
one thing, we have not attained to the delicacy of artistic appre¬ 
ciation that is the heritage of the unspoiled Japanese. But it 
should serve at least to modify our own carelessness in regard to 
our pictures and meaningless bric-a-brac. While you are refur¬ 
nishing that one room this fall, try the experiment of taking out 
all the pictures and mantel ornaments and putting these back one 
at a time only as they seem indispensable. 
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